


Commitment

by Bulletproof_love



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Anger, Anger Management, Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst with a Happy Ending, Baseball, Boys In Love, Comfort/Angst, Commitment, Established Relationship, Fear, Feels, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Frustration, Injury, Injury Recovery, Light Angst, Long-Distance Relationship, Love, M/M, Male Friendship, Minor Injuries, Permanent Injury, Separation Anxiety
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-24
Updated: 2018-09-24
Packaged: 2019-07-16 10:41:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16084469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bulletproof_love/pseuds/Bulletproof_love
Summary: Peter takes to the batting cages to work out his frustrations.





	Commitment

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to my amazing beta tobeconspicuous for taking the time to beta this.

The batting cages had always been Peter’s refuge. From his teenage years, fighting with his father ,  to some of his most frustrating cases over the course of his career ; he always ended up at a version of this space.  

Crack!

The sound of the bat hitting the ball was beyond cathartic. For an instant there was relief, all of that stress he was feeling, the tension he carried, it melted away. There was just that sensation, the immediate satisfaction of hitting something with enough force to do some very real damage.

A few moments and the rage inside of him was back and it flooded him once more as he altered his position and adopted the correct stance. Despite the antagonistic ache in both his shoulder and his elbow he put as much of his fury as possible into the swing.

He felt his arm wrench, white hot agony ricocheting through the muscle as the baseball bat slipped from between his fingers. He spat a curse, his knees feeling weak at the sudden, violent pain now throbbing through his entire right arm. 

He was stupid, beyond fucking stupid. 

He managed to get himself to the bench just inside the chain link fence, dropping down onto it and hissing through his teeth as the vibration agitated his injury even further. 

Peter didn’t even register Carisi’s presence, not until the other man dropped down onto the bench alongside him before passing him a cold soda, fresh from the vending machine. Peter took it gratefully, cradling his arm against his chest before pressing the soda can to the aching tendons in the area surrounding his elbow and leading up towards his shoulder. 

“Old sporting injury.” He said by way of explanation, inhaling deeply through the nose and exhaling through his mouth in attempt to breathe through the pain. 

His arm hadn’t felt this bad in years, not since the weeks after his father’s funeral when he’d done exactly the same fucking thing ; trying to blow off some steam while he coped with the grief. 

Mike had been around back then . He remembered nights spent lying on his stomach in the centre of  their bed as  Mike used firm, meticulous motions to massage the knots out of his right shoulder when it was stiff from the inactivity of wearing a sling in order to support his elbow and bicep.  

Now he’d have to pop a few painkillers and pray to God that the pain would ease up over the next few days.

“The way you were smacking that ball around I’m not surprised you hurt yourself.” Sonny commented wryly, his elbows coming to rest on his knees. “Wanna talk about the real reason you decided to join me down here tonight?”

Carisi was perceptive, Peter had to give him that. 

“Mi k e.” Peter forced himself to say his boyfriend’s name as he busied himself moving the ice pack further up his arm. 

Carisi said nothing. The two of them had talked about this a couple of weeks back over a couple of beers at the bar. It had been hard to express how he felt about his boyfriend’s assignment. When people asked him he always gave them the same spiel, they talked over Skype, he’d be home soon but the truth was far more complicated than that. 

When Carisi had asked, it had all come pouring out and it had felt good to get that off his chest. The other man was a sympathetic ear but more importantly Peter  realized he had come to class Carisi as a close friend, someone he could trust with matters outside of work. 

“I miss him Sonny , ” Peter found himself confiding. “The longer he stays the more afraid I am that he’s building a life over there without me.”

Peter could feel Mike slipping away and it scared the living hell out of him. It was taking every single semblance of his control not to drop everything and get his ass over there to Washington. He wanted to so badly, but he had responsibilities over here that he was locked into. He was currently in the midst of a high-profile rape and murder trial, one that required every scrap of his attention. 

On top of that Pam was having a bad reaction to the new course of treatment the doctors had suggested and he was spending hours in upstate New York occupied with discussions with her doctors and care workers while trying to coax his sister over the worst hurdle. 

“The longer this goes on.” Peter whispered. “The more afraid I am that he’s not coming back.”

“Well, if there is one thing I know about the Sergeant.” Carisi began, meeting Peter’s gaze. “It’s that he keeps his promises and he made a commitment to you and there’s nothing in the world that can change that.”

Peter sucked in a deep breath and nodded his agreement at Carisi’s words. He thought about the ring he had bought only a few weeks ago. The silver Celtic band, the one that made him think of Mike the moment he had seen it. 

When Mike eventually got home, Peter intended to make a commitment of his own.

 


End file.
